Processing facilities are often managed using process control systems. Example processing facilities include manufacturing plants, chemical plants, crude oil refineries, and ore processing plants. Among other operations, process control systems typically interact with and control various field devices, such as sensors and actuators, in the processing facilities.
Wireless technology provides opportunities for process control systems to reduce instrumentation costs, such as by reducing the costs of installing and using sensors or other field devices in a control system. This reduction may, for example, be useful for less critical process measurements, where the costs of installing and using wired field devices may exceed the benefits provided by those wired field devices. As a specific example, wireless technology could be used to span certain obstacles, such as roadways, railways, or certain terrains, where the cost of using wired field devices cannot be justified.
A processing facility often has numerous wired field devices in its process control system. These wired field devices may use standard wired protocols to communicate. However, not all field devices are available in every standard wired protocol. As a result, different wired protocols are often intermixed in a process control system.